Trump’s Great American State Fair Sponsors Hid Millions in Donations

Freedom 250’s corporate sponsors may have violated the Lobbying Disclosure Act. Some of America’s biggest corporations shelled out millions of dollars to support Freedom 250, the Trump administration’s public-private partnership that oversaw spending for the country’s semiquincentennial celebration. It was no secret who was involved: The Freedom 250 website proudly displayed nearly two dozen of its sponsors, including Palantir, Boeing, ExxonMobil, United Health Group, and more.

But most of those corporations—including defense contractors Lockheed Martin, GE Aerospace, and Northrop Grumman—did not disclose the payments on lobbyist contribution reports that were due to Congress by last Friday, according to a NOTUS investigation. Just three Freedom 250 backers made note of their event contributions in their recent filings, as required by the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act: Chevron, United Airlines, and RTX, according to NOTUS.